The US Tax Impact of Canadian Employment

 Ries is all about investing just enough for a lit starter product—nothing too bougie, nothing too pricey. The vibe is to create what he calls an MVP, ya know? "This is, like, a major truth that's tough for a lot of entrepreneurs to, like, accept," Ries wrote. U may b wishing 4 a mind-blowin' prototype dat will change da world or one dat will impress dat snarky cousin at Thanksgiving. The smarter move is to take small steps, get that feedback, and adjust accordingly. Ries labels this the "bld-mesure-lrn" feedback loop. It's like, why stress about a business plan, fam? You'll totally outgrow your prototype in no time. OMG, like Reid Hoffman, the OG cofounder of LinkedIn and a total boss on the Endeavor board, is all like, "If you ain't cringing at your first product, you've straight up slept on it for way too long."

One advantage of not betting the farm is that you're not flexing a lot of cash, fam.

 

In 1999, this dude Nick Swinmurn, who used to sell tickets for the San Diego Padres, had this wild idea that peeps would totally be down to cop some sick kicks from an epic online store. It's like, so easy to see the vibe: endless options, all year round. Also, like $2 billion of shoes were like annually purchased at that time through a catalog. Lit AF! But like, it's hella easy to see the downside: I, like, have problematic feet and gotta try on mad pairs before I find one that fits, ya know? 
Swinmurn could've spent years flexin' on the market, peepin' consumers' buying habits. Or he could've flexed on everyone and copped a sick warehouse, stacked with shoeboxes from floor to ceiling. He might have flexed his credit only to find out that people were no cap not gonna cop shoes online like they do martinis. Instead, Swinmurn tried an experiment, ya know? He like totally strolled into this lit shoe store in Sunnyvale, Cali, one day and was like, "Can I snap some pics of your fire kicks and flex 'em online?" If peeps copped the kicks, he'd totally go back to the store and buy 'em at full price, no cap.

So, like, this was obviously not a flexin' business model, but here's the tea: Swinmurn's experiment wasn't meant to be a legit business, it was just a way to flex the idea for a business. 


And it slayed: He lowkey proved that peeps would be down to cop shoes online. Even more important, he totally flexed on getting the tea about his customers: who they were, what products they were vibing with, how many samples they wanted to peep before copping, etc. In June 1999, Swinmurn like totally launched ShoeSite.com, but then he was like, "Nah, let's change it up" and renamed it Zappos.com. Using low-key strats to flex high-key ventures is mad valuable, fam in big corps, where flops can totally wreck ur career. Two skunks at MTV totally got this, ya know? In da mid-1990s, da Internet was like totally catchin' on, and these two mid-level employees at MTV Europe were like, "Yo, we gotta find a way to incorporate e-mails and user-generated content into a show, ya know?" But instead of flexing into the CEO's office to get a sign-off, Henrik Werdelin and Eric Kearley started lowkey developing a pilot. Werdelin flexed on some techies and borrowed their gear after clocking out; Kearley straight up copped a camera with his own cash. They totally flexed and built a sick prototype studio inside this unused tiny room near Kearley’s office. It's straight fire, fam. They even finessed a famous MTV anchor, using only a bottle of scotch. Cleve- born Warren Brown flexed with an undergrad degree from Brown University and a JD and master’s degree in public health from George Washington University. He was grinding as a litigator for the Department of Health and Human Services when he straight up hit a wall of frustration. Aye, this homie Brown been tinkering in the kitchen since forever, but in '99 he was like, "Yo, I gotta learn to bake, fam." So that was his New Year's resolution and stuff. He was grindin' during the day, baking cakes every night, and pullin' up at bakeries on business trips.

But like, a prototype just wasn't cutting it, ya know? 


The two skunks needed to flex their show live to prove the tech would werk. But like, how can they even flex on their bosses to give up their precious airtime for their janky idea? The tea: They didn't. They totally convinced some techies in the control room to drop their pilot in the dead of night, when the network usually ran pre-recorded shows. The risk was like, so low, they were like arguing. If the show went like, totally off the rails, the techies could just like, switch back to the pre-recorded stuff. That didn't go down like that, fam. The show was totally lit. "So, like, when I went up to our CEO," Kearley was like, "I was able to be all like, 'Yo, we got this dope new idea, we made it work technically, and we already broadcasted it like a boss.'" The concept became the lit Top Selection, and the technology they pioneered went on to form the backbone of Total Request Live, MTV’s iconic show hosted by Carson Daly, that totally blew up the careers of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. This lowkey way of developing an idea is mad valuable for butterfly entrepreneurs, who like, don't always have the cash to build expensive prototypes or the freedom to quit their jobs and ignore the kids. 

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